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Development of a Soft Exosuit for Lifting and Lowering Loads

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  • Control Theory and Applications
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Abstract

An analysis of industrial accidents revealed that workers in the manufacturing field suffered from various injuries resulting in a huge loss of workdays. In order for an exosuit to better support physical activities including strengthening the human body, we expect to develop it further that can prevent worker injuries and improve work efficiency at the same time in the field. This study aims to develop an algorithm to distinguish between the gait, lifting, and lowering motions using inertial measurement units (IMUs). We also plan to make a soft exosuit that can help lifting heavy objects using actuators enhancing muscular assistance in gait, lifting, and lowering motions. In the design of an exosuit, elastic bands are used to ensure wearer comfort and we try to make the weight of actuators as light as possible so as to more efficiently assist the human body. With the total weight 0.52 kg of the exosuit, the algorithm can detect the gait motion with a weighted F1 score of 0.8525 and the lifting and lowering motions with the 0.9494. Furthermore, in consideration of rectus femoris which is agonist muscle for walking, lifting, and lowering movements, it appears that the root mean square (RMS) values of the electromyograms (EMGs) for the left and right rectus femoris during the standing up activity are decreased by 24.22% and 20.86%, respectively, compared with the values measured without wearing the exosuit. Additionally, the assisting effect on other major muscles is also significant, demonstrating that the exosuit can assist in improving muscle strength.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sports and Science, Chungnam National University, 99, Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea

    Young Jin Moon, Wang-Lok Lee & Minju Shin

  2. Department of Mathematics, Chungnam National University, 99, Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea

    Myungsoo Choi & Jinhae Park

  3. The academic team at the SELVAS Healthcare, Inc., 155, Sinseong-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea

    Wonjun Cho

  4. Korea Institute of Sport Science, 105, Seonsuchon-ro, Gwanghyewon-myeon, Jincheon-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do, Korea

    Juwon Song

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Correspondence to Myungsoo Choi.

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This work was supported by the Technology Innovation Program (or Industrial Strategic Technology Development Program-Design specialized technology development project) (K_G012000673203, Development of Soft Exosuit product design to assist muscle strength more than 15%) funded By the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy(MOTIE, Korea). This work was supported by BK21 FOUR Program by Chungnam National University Research Grant, 2022 and Jinhae Park’s research was supported by Chungnam National University Research Grant, 2020.

Young Jin Moon received his B.S. degree in mathematics from Chungnam National University, Korea, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in sport science from Seoul National University, Korea, in 2002. He is currently a professor in Chungnam National University. His research interests include motion analysis and optimization, sports performance enhancement, and shoes development.

Myungsoo Choi received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in pure mathematics from Chungnam National University, Korea, in 2019. He is currently a graduate student in the Doctoral program at the Chungnam National University, Korea. His research interests focus on nonlinear control, applied mathematics, and pattern analysis.

Wang-Lok Lee received his B.S. degree in physical education from Dona-A University, Korea, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in sport science from Seoul National University, Korea, in 2001. He is currently a professor in Chungnam National University. His research interests include exercise physiology, metabolism, and health related physical activity.

Jinhae Park received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Department of Mathematics from Chungnam National University, Korea, and a Ph.D. degree from the School of Mathematics at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA in 2006. He is currently a professor and a principal investigator for Brain Korea 21 Project Four in Chungnam National University, Korea. His research mainly concerns on calculus of variations and partial differential equations arising from materials science, and neural networks.

Minju Shin received her B.S. degree in sports science from Chungnam National University, Korea, in 2022. She is currently a graduate student pursuing an M.S. degree in Chungnam National University, Korea. Her research interests include kinematics, applied mathematics, and pattern analysis.

Wonjun Cho received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in sports science from Chungnam National University, Korea, in 2021. He is currently a manager in the academic team at the SELVAS Healthcare, Inc., Korea. His research interests include exercise physiology, sports biomechanics, and kinesiology.

Juwon Song received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in sports science from Chungnam National University, Korea, in 2022. He is currently a researcher at the Korea Institute of Sport Science. His research interests include gait analysis, athlete performance improvement, and performance verification.

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Moon, Y.J., Choi, M., Lee, WL. et al. Development of a Soft Exosuit for Lifting and Lowering Loads. Int. J. Control Autom. Syst. 21, 3970–3982 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12555-022-0122-8

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